Now that Gen Prawit
has given his nod, the navy will use its fiscal 2017 budget amounting
to some 333 million U.S. dollars to buy the first Chinese sub next
year with the two others to follow over the next few years. The deputy
premier said the navy will only pay for the Chinese subs on instalment
basis which will span a ten-year's time from next year.
The S26T is reportedly to be based on the Type 039A SSK of the People's
Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) also refered as Yuan class. It is a fairly
recent design first commissioned in 2008 with a displacement of 3,600
tons and a length of 75 meters. It may feature an air-independent
propulsion (AIP) system as an auxiliary system to a regular diesel-electric
power.
